Tigers expecting to play on

STOCKTON - The Pacific women's basketball team exited the West Coast Conference Tournament on Monday in the semifinals with a double-digit loss to BYU, but it won't be how it ends the season.

Jagdip Dhillon

STOCKTON - The Pacific women's basketball team exited the West Coast Conference Tournament on Monday in the semifinals with a double-digit loss to BYU, but it won't be how it ends the season.

Coach Lynne Roberts and the Tigers fully expect to participate in the Women's National Invitation Tournament next week. The brackets will be announced Monday after the NCAA Tournament selection show.

If BYU, which lost in the championship game to No. 16 Gonzaga, gets an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament, the Tigers would get the WCC's automatic berth into the WNIT as the conference's third-place team. If the Cougars are in the WNIT, the Tigers (18-12) are a safe bet to receive an at-large bid because they are No. 75 in the NCAA.com's RPI rankings.

"There are no guarantees yet, but I'm 99.9-percent sure about it," Roberts said. "We're planning on it and we'll be back at practice Friday. I think there's a really good chance of us hosting as well."

Pacific has participated in the WNIT the past two years and hosted two games last season en route to the Round of 16. These Tigers have won 10 of 13 games, including a WCC Tournament quarterfinal (84-72 over Portland on Friday).

"We want to go even further this season and I'm confident this team can do that," junior center Kendall Kenyon said. "It's also another chance to play with our seniors and, hopefully, in front of our fans. That would be awesome."

According to Roberts, Kenyon was ill during the BYU loss and thus limited to five points and six rebounds in 18 minutes, but she should be healthy for a possible first-round WNIT game Wednesday, Thursday or March 21. Roberts said the Tigers missed shots early against the Cougars, then got a little shell-shocked and couldn't recover despite playing better in the second half.

"We were ready to play and wanted to win and we kept coming at them," Roberts said. "We had some momentum in the second half, but they showed why they're a great team."

Senior guard KiKi Moore, who was named to the All-WCC Tournament team after averaging 27 points and amassing 14 steals in the three games, said the Tigers just need to keep playing at the level they have the past two months and should be able to make a run in the WNIT.

"Now I'll be playing every game like its my last, this will be the last chance we will get," said Moore, the NCAA's active career leader in steals. "We want to go as far as we can and play as long as we can."